All sources are Wikipedia.
Dionisio Aguado y García (8 April 1784 – 29 December 1849) was a Spanish classical guitarist and composer of the late Classical and early Romantic periods.
Aguado’s major work Nuevo Metodo Para Guitarra was a guitar tutorial published in 1843. It is still in print. Aguado describes his use of fingernails on the right hand as well as his invention of a “tripodison”, a device that held the guitar and thus minimized the damping effect of the player’s body on the guitar’s back and sides.
Aguado’s other works include numerous waltzes, minuets, and other light pieces. The more extended works require a virtuoso technique and left-hand stretches that are almost impossible on the longer string lengths of modern guitars.
Anton Diabelli (5 September 1781 – 8 April 1858) was an Austrian music publisher, editor and composer.
Diabelli composed a number of well-known Classical works, including an operetta called Adam in der Klemme, several masses, songs and numerous piano and classical guitar pieces. Numerically his guitar pieces form the largest part of his works
The composition for which Diabelli is now best known was actually written as part of an adventuring story. In 1819, as a promotional idea, he decided to try to publish a volume of variations on a “patriotic” waltz he had penned expressly for this purpose, with one variation by every important Austrian composer living at the time, as well as several significant non-Austrians. Beethoven, however, provided 33 variations. They constitute what is generally regarded as one of the greatest of Beethoven’s piano pieces and are generally known simply as the Diabelli Variations
Francesco Molino (also known as François Molino; 4 June 1768 – 1847) was an Italian guitarist, violinist, and composer.
His works were largely neglected until the twentieth century, when many of them were republished. Among the best-known are his Three Sonatas, 18 Preludes and Terpsichore (a set of dances), all for solo guitar. He also wrote for other instruments in combination with the guitar, including flute and violin. In 1830 he published a guitar method.
Johann Kaspar Mertz (17 August 1806 – 14 October 1856) was a guitarist and composer from the Austrian Empire.
Mertz’s guitar music, unlike that of most of his contemporaries, followed the pianistic models of Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Schubert and Schumann, rather than the classical models of Mozart and Haydn (as did Sor and Aguado), or the bel canto style of Rossini (as did Giuliani). Though the date of his birth indicates that that was the logical influence, since Sor was born in 1778, Aguado in 1784 and Giuliani in 1781 while Mertz in 1806, a difference of about 25 years.
Niccolò (or Nicolò) Paganini (27 October 1782 – 27 May 1840) was an Italian violinist and composer. He was the most celebrated violin virtuoso of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique.
Robert Schumann (8 June 1810 – 29 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and music critic of the early Romantic era. Album for the Young, Opus 68, was composed in 1848 for his three daughters. The album consists of a collection of 43 short works. They are suitable to be played by children or beginners.
Selection of Pieces for Inclusion in this Book
I played many pieces by Dionisio Aguado, Anton Diabelli, Francesco Molino, Johann Kaspar Mertz and others as a student of the classical guitar and still perform them today. So, I searched my music books, anthologies, collections and recordings to identify the best pieces used for teaching, yet are still enjoyable as miniatures on their own. Of course, most technical studies were eliminated but there were many pieces to include and I arranged some of these for ukulele.
These are the results. Enjoy!